Great wine in Elim and Hemel-en-Aarde

A little over a month ago we spent 2 great weekends exploring some of SA's beautiful wine regions.  Elim was completely new to us.  We stayed at little self-catering cottages on Black Oystercatcher Wine Estate and did tastings at Strandveld, Jean Daneel, The Berrio, Giant Periwinkle and Zoetendal.  Beautiful cool climate wine and some really friendly people. 

Jean Daneel

Black Oystercatcher sunset

Hemel-en-Aarde, near Hermanus, is absolutely one of my favourite South African wine wards.  It's a really beautiful valley and the view from our little self-catering farmhouse on Spookfontein was fantastic.  Lunch the one day at Moggs, the next at 'The Restaurant at Newton Johnson', could it get any better?  No.

Ataraxia

     

The Matjiesvlei Valley

One of favourite SA destinations, the peaceful Matjiesvlei Valley, near Calitzdorp, is a small farming community with a range of accommodation options.  We've stayed in almost all of them and each have their own charm. 

Middelplaas (below) is certainly high up on the list of my top 10 braai spots.